Farm Subsidies

Vittorio Nastasi | From the January 2024 issue

In his 1904 campaign for governor, Napoleon Bonaparte Broward vowed to turn the vast South Florida marsh into an "Empire of the Everglades." The ensuing efforts to tame the natural landscape set off a century of miraculous growth and development, but at great environmental cost. Restoration of the Everglades region is now among Florida's most vexing challenges—complicated by an array of tariffs and subsidies that prop up the Big Sugar industry in the region.

Prior to human settlement, the Everglades was nearly twice the size it is today. Water flowed freely from Central Florida through the winding Kissimmee River and into Lake Okeechobee. In the wet seasons, the lake's water levels rose until the liquid lapped over its southern edge into a vast "river of grass" before entering Florida Bay. The water flowed through expansive grassland prairies, marshes, and sloughs, giving rise to one of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet.

Shortly after Florida was granted statehood, Congress passed the Swamp Lands Act of 1850. This law turned over roughly 20 million acres of federally owned swampland to the state to make way for food crops and cattle farms. By the 1920s, a series of canals had been constructed and a modest levee built out of muck and sand to protect settlements south of Lake Okeechobee from flooding. But these flood protections were easily overcome by two hurricanes in the 1920s, which led to extensive flooding and a devastating loss of life. At President........

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